for man the
material out of which Wisdom, using "the best means to attain the best
ends," builds a noble life. To have the mind clear, the judgment just, the
conscience true, the will strong, so that we may sight the goal of life,
may learn the laws by which it is to be won, and may firmly seek it,
steadfast amid all seductions--this is wisdom.

Would that for one single day, we may have lived in this world as we
ought.

Thus prays the author of the Imitation of Christ; and in so praying he is
sighing after wisdom.

This culture of wisdom is the aim of the books which together form the
Bible. They reveal to our vision the best ends in life, and point us to
the best means of winning those high aims. They clear the atmosphere of
mists, disclose to us our bearings, and fill our souls with the afflatus
which wafts us toward "the haven where we would be." These books are
rightly called by Paul, the "Holy Scriptures," the scriptures of holiness,
the writings whose genius is goodness. Their charm is "the beauty of
holiness," the graciousness of Goodness as she unveils herself therein.
And this genius of gracious Goodness which irradiates the inner court of
this temple, lays such a spell upon the souls of men inasmuch as she is
seen to be the very daughter of God; according to the soliloquy overheard
by mortal ears, wherein Wisdom sings:

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way,
Before His work of old.

* * * * *

Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him,
And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.

Religion becomes the worship of the God who is the source and standard of
goodness, the love of the Eternal who loveth righteousness, the child's
crying out into the dark--O righteous Father.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.

The Bible is the choicest extant literature of the people of religion,
the record and embodiment of the evolution of ethical worship, through its
varied moods and tenses, into its perfect type in Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Bible-books form, therefore, the classics of the soul, in which we are
to study the nature and secret of goodness; the manual which every earnest
man and woman, intent on building character, should use habitually for
ethical culture, and for the ethical worship which is its inspiration.
This is the truest use of the Bible.

* * * * *

The inte